


Going Home, Finding Home

by fabrega



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 15:19:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1121409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabrega/pseuds/fabrega
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bilbo leaves the company five minutes earlier in the mountain pass, before the dwarves are captured by goblins. Bofur sets off to get him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going Home, Finding Home

  
_"I wish you all the luck in the world. I really do."_

*

Bofur stands at the mountain cave's entrance for several minutes after Bilbo sets off, ostensibly still on watch, staring in the direction the hobbit had gone. Unfortunately, this means that no one sees when the floor begins to drop out from under the sleeping dwarves; they end up in the middle of a goblin lair, but that's hardly _his_ fault.

When they escape, saved by Gandalf yet again, panting and maybe a little thrilled, Gandalf counts them up and asks why Bilbo is missing. In the rush of their adventure, Bofur had nearly forgotten. Thorin answers Gandalf's question, his voice bitter, and in his head and his heart, Bofur begins to look over his list of why's and why not's. He'd evaluated the list when Bilbo had left--the home he didn't have, the adventure he'd always wanted, the allegiance he owed his brother and his fellows and his maybe-king, the treasure and the furnace with wings guarding it--and had found that there was no way he could leave his companions.

Then the orcs attack. Thorin does something really dumb, because of course he does, and the whole company ends up needing rescued by eagles. Bofur attempts to cling to both the eagle and his hat at once. He stares up at Thorin, who is dangling limply from a set of huge talons, and worry of a different sort gnaws on his insides. A new set of why not's are starting to resolve themselves: that Azog the Defiler yet lives, the price on Thorin's head, the bile in Thorin's heart that will surely only get them into more trouble, the way that something in his gut had twisted with loss when he remembered again that Bilbo had left, how much more it feels like he doesn't have a home now than it did yesterday. 

He makes up his mind.

The eagles deposit them atop a rocky crag, and the company sets up camp there, assessing their injuries and what supplies they have left. They need to stop and tend to Thorin's wounds, which will hinder their progress further. It's looking less and less like they're going to make it to the Lonely Mountain by Durin's Day. The mountain is silhouetted in the distance, but none of the dwarves can bring themselves to marvel at it, not now.

Bofur sees Gandalf count them all again, sees his face fall a little bit, sees the way Gandalf keeps staring back at the mountains they'd just left as the company moves around him. He screws up his courage and sidles nonchalantly over to the wizard.

"Someone should probably go after him," he says to Gandalf knowingly. His face is a picture of neutrality.

Gandalf stares at him for a second, obviously pulled from a different set of thoughts. "Who?"

"Why, Bilbo, of course," Bofur explains.

The corners of Gandalf's mouth tug up in an inscrutable smile. "It sounded as though Master Baggins had no further interest in your quest," he says.

Bofur acknowledges this with a shrug. "Well, sure, but how are we going to steal anything without a burglar? You wouldn't have brought him along if we didn't need him, _specifically_ him."

"So what do you suggest I do, Bofur? Leave you all here and run off after him?"

Bofur feigns shock. "Oh, goodness no! You're needed here. Who knows what kind of trouble Thorin would find himself in without you! Now, someone like _me_ , on the other hand--"

"You?"

"Oh, you think I'd be a good choice to go? I'll just pack my things--" 

" _Bofur_." Gandalf's voice is stern, and Bofur stops in his tracks, already two steps away. He turns back to face the wizard and immediately feels pinned in place by Gandalf's somehow-kindly gaze. "What will you do if you ask and he truly does not wish to return?"

And there is a word echoing in Bofur's head, a word he doesn't understand: _home_. But he looks at Gandalf, grins easily, and says, "Well then, I'll just have to ask again, won't I?"

*

It is a good thing Thorin still isn't well when Bofur leaves, because it seems likely Thorin would do something dumb again to keep him here. Instead, Bofur pulls Balin aside and makes him promise to keep a watchful eye on his brother, Bombur; gives Bombur a fierce, unexplained hug; and then slips away in the middle of the night. He is stopped by Fíli and Kíli, who have insisted on standing watch together, and is forced to reveal his plan to them. They exchange a look, but don't hold him up any further.

"How will you find him? There is much country between here and the Shire," Fíli asks, seeming concerned.

"I'll try to catch up to him at Rivendell, I think," Bofur says. "He hasn't got that much of a start on me, and I'd bet he'll stop there before making the long journey back to his little hobbit hole."

Kíli makes a disgusted face and shudders slightly at the thought. " _Elves_."

Bofur grins with forced confidence, and with that, he sets off to find their burglar.

*

The road to Rivendell is far less treacherous than the road away from it had been, despite it actually being the same road, just traversed in a different direction. One dwarf travels much more quickly, quietly, and easily than a whole company had, and there seem to be fewer enemies about. He tries not to think about why that is, tries to focus on the road ahead and what he's going to say when he reaches Rivendell. His made-up plan will go better if Bilbo will just agree to come back. He's really not sure what he's going to do if Bilbo won't go.

He makes good time and manages, somehow, to literally run into Bilbo Baggins right outside the gates of Rivendell. The hobbit is knocked over and makes a startled noise punctuated by what sounds like a squeak of flustered delight. The warm feeling is back in Bofur's torso.

"Bofur! What are you doing here?" Bilbo exclaims, picking himself up off the road where he has fallen.

"You need to come back," Bofur blurts. All the persuasive arguments he had thought up on the road seem to have fallen out of his head. "We won't succeed without a burglar." When Bilbo doesn't immediately say anything, he panics further and tells an obvious lie: "Even Thorin thinks we need you."

Bilbo snorts. "You got on perfectly well before I showed up, and I'll wager you'll do even better now that you don't have me along."

"As soon as you left, we were captured by goblins," Bofur admits. "And then raided by orcs."

Bilbo makes a series of disbelieving faces at him. "And that's supposed to persuade me to come back? I'm not sure what you expect me to have been able to do about that. I'm just a simple hobbit from the Shire; I don't fight orcs or goblins. I don't save the day. Thorin saves the day. _Gandalf_ saves the day."

"Nobody expects you to save the day," Bofur says. "And in case you forgot, you did save us from those trolls."

"That was Gandalf," Bilbo protests.

"I was tied up, being roasted on a spit! We would all have been eaten if not for you!" Bofur says, thrusting out his chin.

"You don't know that--"

"You can't prove it's _not_ true. And who knows what might have happened in the mountains if you'd still been with us. Maybe Gandalf wouldn't have needed to rescue us from the goblins. Maybe Thorin wouldn't have been so badly hurt."

"What--?" Bilbo begins, but they are interrupted by a contingent of elves, drawn out by the presence of strangers on Rivendell's doorstep. 

They are brought before Lord Elrond. He is surprised to see them, but offers them both food and lodgings, respite from the road for as long as they need. Bofur tries his best to smile politely, although he is approached after the audience by one of Lord Elrond's attendants, who had been watching him and wanted to know if there is something the elves can do to help him with the pain he is so visibly in. Bofur just scowls and lets them lead him to his room.

*

It's strange, being the only dwarf among all these elves. Bofur does not know or care for their customs, and certainly isn't going to make an effort to learn or adhere to them. He wonders what an elf would feel like in a dwarven kingdom.

He wonders what _he_ would feel like in a real dwarven kingdom now.

He wonders if this is how Bilbo felt in the company of dwarves.

He spends much of his free time with Bilbo. They wander the halls of Rivendell, Bilbo creeping almost reverently from room to room, Bofur...less so. He does end up learning something of the elves' customs second-hand by watching the hobbit interact with their hosts, weaving his way carefully and politely among and around the elves they encounter on their outings.

The hobbit does not mention Thorin, the other dwarves, or the quest at first, but eventually he begins to casually ask questions: _what happened to you all, to Thorin, on the mountain with the orcs and the goblins_ ; _how do you think the others are doing_ ; and _tell me again about Erebor_. Bofur answers as best as he can. He describes the goblin king and the goblins' horrible singing and the wounds Thorin received at the hands of the orcs. He maps out the perils he knows of between where he'd left the company and the Lonely Mountain and speaks of the goblin king's terrible insistence that the pale orc had put a price on Thorin's head. He relates what he knows of the Lonely Mountain, the tales he's heard and the promises that were made to him and the few things he remembers. 

They sit in a dusty hallway and Bofur sings Bilbo the songs he knows of Lonely Mountain, then just any dwarven song, every song he can remember. When he runs out of his own songs, he asks Bilbo what songs the hobbits of the Shire sing.

Bilbo has been open and easy the whole time Bofur has been singing, but at the question he suddenly turns reticent. After much coaxing, he finally says, "I don't remember where I learned this one, but I've always liked it." There is a slight waver in his voice as he sings, softly, a song about roads and the need to follow them.

When Bilbo finishes, Bofur smiles at him. "Now, that doesn't seem like a song that anybody who sits at home and has no intention of ever going on adventures would sing."

Bilbo looks thoughtful and smiles back. "No, it really doesn't, does it," he says, and he leans in closer to Bofur.

*

Bofur is in his quarters, whittling a small wooden horse out of an appropriated table leg, when Bilbo appears in the doorway and asks him, out of the blue, "When do you need to return to the company? Surely they are missing you by now."

The question surprises Bofur, and he frowns for a moment before answering. "Right, because a quest to reclaim a mountain from a fire-breathing dragon surely won't be successful without a toymaker along." He means for it to sound light-hearted and a little self-deprecating, but it sounds much sadder than he intends.

"You can fight," Bilbo says, trying to be helpful. He enters the room and takes a seat next to Bofur on the edge of the overlarge bed. "Besides, the Lonely Mountain is your home too--you have as much right to be on the quest to reclaim it as any of the others. I know that if Bag End had been taken from me, I'd fight to get it back."

"It really isn't my home, though. It's been many, many years since the mountain was taken--a long time to call the memory of a place 'home'." Bofur smiles ruefully. "Honestly, I just thought a little adventure might be fun. I'm not the kind of person who saves the day either."

"You saved me." Bilbo's voice is quiet.

Bofur thinks about it, then chuckles. "What, when I gave you that handkerchief?" This is easier than acknowledging all the times since Bilbo left home that Bofur had gone out of his way to look after the hobbit. If they talked about that, they'd have to talk about--

"Bofur, why did you come after me?" Bilbo asks. "And don't give me that nonsense about dragons and burglars and Thorin, because I know that isn't true."

Bofur sputters for a moment, grinning desperately and saying something incoherent about nonsense and how he would _never_ , but Bilbo gives him a serious look that shuts him up. Finally, Bofur says, "You're going home. I'm on a quest to find mine, and I realized after you left that maybe I was headed in the wrong direction--looking in the wrong place."

"Oh," Bilbo says. It's almost not a word at all, just a little noise, but to Bofur's ears it doesn't sound displeased.

Unsure of what to do next, Bofur turns his attention back to his whittling. He is concentrating on it very hard, so he doesn't see Bilbo make the bravest face he's ever made--he only looks up to see Bilbo's face approaching his own, and then just that quickly, he is being kissed. Bofur flails with surprise, dropping the whittling and grabbing at his hat. He doesn't push Bilbo away, and Bilbo pulls him closer.

"I think," Bilbo says deliberately, after he finally pulls away, "I should like to help you find your home."

  


***

Much time has passed since Gandalf last set foot in the realm of the Silvan elves, so his arrival is viewed with no small amount of suspicion. But he _is_ of the Istari, so he is treated graciously and carefully. He requests a meeting with the king, which is granted; he is escorted to the throne room by the captain of the guard.

Although there were many more important things he should have been doing after escaping Dol Guldur, Gandalf had gone to the Lonely Mountain as he'd told Thorin he would, in the hopes of meeting up with the dwarven company and receiving some small bit of good news. He finds no dwarves at Erebor, just Bilbo Baggins and Bofur in Laketown, settled in comfortably and enjoying each other's company in a way he knows better than to question, waiting for the others to arrive.

The others, well, the others he has tracked here.

Thranduil stands from the throne where he is seated, welcoming Gandalf in. "Well," he intones, "What business brings Mithrandir to the Greenwood?"

Gandalf inclines his head respectfully, knowing that a little flattery will make this go a lot more smoothly. He had set Thorin on this quest and owes him at least this much. Still, his voice sounds utterly resigned as he says, "I have come about the fools you have locked in your dungeon."


End file.
